Colonial India

Colonial India

Colonial Indiarefers to areas of theIndian Subcontinentunder the control of Europeancolonialpowers, through trade and conquest. The first European power to arrive in India was the army ofAlexander the Greatin 327326 BC. Thesatrapshe established in the north west of the subcontinent quickly crumbled after he left. Later,trade was carriedbetween Indian states and theRoman Empireby Roman sailors who reached India via theRed SeaandArabian Sea, but the Romans never sought trading settlements or territory in India. Thespice tradebetween India and Europe was one of the main trading sessions of the world economy and was the main catalyst for theperiod of European exploration. PortuguesesailorVasco da Gamabecame the first European to re-establish direct trade links with India since Roman times by being the first to arrive by circumnavigatingAfrica. Having arrived inCalicut, which by then was one of the major trading ports of the eastern world, he obtained permission to trade in the city fromSaamoothiri Rajah.

Trading rivalries brought otherEuropeanpowers to India. TheNetherlands,England,France, andDenmarkestablished trading posts in India in the early 17th century. The relatively weak and unstable Indian states which emerged were increasingly open to manipulation by the Europeans through dependent "friendly" Indian rulers.

The colonial era in India began in 1502, when thePortuguese Empireestablished the first European trading centre atKollam, Kerala. In 1505 the King of Portugal appointed DomFrancisco de Almeidaas the first Portuguese viceroy in India, followed in 1509 by DomAfonso de Albuquerque. In 1510 Albuquerque conquered the city ofGoa, which had been controlled byMuslims. He inaugurated the policy of marrying Portuguese soldiers and sailors with local Indian girls, the consequence of which was a great miscegenationin Goa and other Portuguese territories in Asia. Another feature of the Portuguese presence in India was their will to evangelize and promoteCatholicism. In this, theJesuitsplayed a fundamental role, and to this day the Jesuit missionarySaint Francis Xavieris revered among the Catholics of India.

The Portuguese established a chain of outposts along India's west coast and on the island ofCeylonin the early 16th century. They built the St. Angelo Fort atKannurto guard their possessions inNorth Malabar.[4]Goa was their prized possession and the seat of Portugal's viceroy. Portugal's northern province included settlements atDaman,Diu,Chaul,Baaim,Salsette, andMumbai. The rest of the Northern Province, with the exception ofDaman and Diu, was lost to theMaratha Empirein the early 18th century.

In 1661 Portugal was at war with Spain and needed support from [[Kingdom of England|England]. This led to the marriage ofPrincess Catherine of Portugalto Charles II of England, with a dowry that included the city ofBombay. This was the beginning of theEnglish presencein India.

[edit]DutchMain article:Dutch India

European settlements in India (1501-1739)

TheDutch East India Companyestablished trading posts on different parts along the Indian coast. For some while, they controlled theMalabarsouthwest coast (Kodungallor,Pallipuram,Cochin, Cochin de Baixo/Santa Cruz,Quilon(Coylan),Cannanore,Kundapura,Kayamkulam,Ponnani) and theCoromandelsoutheastern coast (Golkonda,Bimilipatnam,Kakinada,Palikol,Pulicat,Parangippettai,Negapatnam) andSurat(16161795). They conqueredCeylonfrom the Portuguese. TheDutchalso established trading stations inTravancoreand coastalTamil Naduas well as atRajshahiin present-dayBangladesh,Pipely,Hugli-Chinsura, andMurshidabadin present-dayWest Bengal,Balasore(Baleshwar or Bellasoor) inOrissa, andAva,Arakan, andSyriamin present-dayMyanmar(Burma).Ceylonwas lost at theCongress of Viennain the aftermath of theNapoleonic Wars, where the Dutch having fallen subject toFrance, saw their colonies raided byBritain. The Dutch later became less involved inIndia, as they had theDutch East Indies(nowIndonesia) as their prized possession.

[edit]English and British IndiaMain articles:English colonial empireandBritish India[edit]Rivalry with the NetherlandsAt the end of the 16th century, England and theUnited Netherlandsbegan to challenge Portugal's monopoly of trade with Asia, forming privatejoint-stock companiesto finance the voyages" theEnglish (later British) East India Company, and theDutch East India Company, which were chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively. These companies were intended to carry on the lucrative spice trade, and they focused their efforts on the areas of production, theIndonesianarchipelago and especially the "Spice Islands", and on India as an important market for the trade. The close proximity ofLondonandAmsterdamacross theNorth Sea, and the intense rivalry between England and the Netherlands, inevitably led to conflict between the two companies, with the Dutch gaining the upper hand in theMoluccas(previously a Portuguese stronghold) after the withdrawal of the English in 1622, but with the English enjoying more success in India, atSurat, after the establishment of afactoryin 1613.

Fort St. Georgewas founded atMadrasin 1639

The Netherlands' more advanced financial system[5]and the threeAnglo-Dutch Warsof the 17th century left the Dutch as the dominant naval and trading power in Asia. Hostilities ceased after theGlorious Revolutionof 1688, when the Dutch princeWilliam of Orangeascended the English throne, bringing peace between the Netherlands and England. A deal between the two nations left the more valuable spice trade of the Indonesian archipelago to the Netherlands and the textiles industry of India to England, but textiles overtook spices in terms of profitability, so that by 1720, in terms of sales, the English company had overtaken the Dutch.[5]The English East India Company shifted its focus from Surata hub of the spice trade networktoFort St. George.

[edit]East India CompanySee also:Company rule in IndiaIn 1757Mir Jafar, the commander in chief of the army of theNawab of Bengal, along withJagat Seth, MaharajaKrishna Nath,Umi Chandand some others, secretly connived with the British, asking support to overthrow the Nawab in return for trade grants. The British forces, whose sole duty until then was guarding Companyproperty, were numerically inferior to theBengaliarmed forces. At theBattle of Plasseyon 23 June 1757, fought between the British under the command ofRobert Cliveand the Nawab, Mir Jafar's forces betrayed the Nawab and helped defeat him. Jafar was installed on the throne as a British subservient ruler.[6]The battle transformed British perspective as they realized their strength and potential to conquer smaller Indian kingdoms and marked the beginning of the imperial or colonial era.

An 1876 political cartoon ofBenjamin Disraeli(18041881) makingQueen VictoriaEmpress of India. The caption was "New crowns for old ones!"

British policy in Asia during the 19th century was chiefly concerned with expanding and protecting its hold on India, viewed as its most important colony and the key to the rest of Asia.[7]TheEast India Companydrove the expansion of theBritish Empirein Asia. The company's army had first joined forces with theRoyal Navyduring theSeven Years' War, and the two continued to cooperate in arenas outside India: the eviction of Napoleon fromEgypt(1799), the capture ofJavafrom the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition ofSingapore(1819) andMalacca(1824), and the defeat ofBurma(1826).[8]From its base in India, the company had also been engaged in an increasingly profitableopiumexport trade to China since the 1730s. This trade, unlawful in China since it was outlawed by theQing dynastyin 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports oftea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China. In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities atCantonof 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in theFirst Opium War, and the seizure by Britain of the island ofHong Kong, at that time a minor settlement.[9]The British had direct or indirect control over all of present-day India before the middle of the 19th century. In 1857, a local rebellion by an army ofsepoysescalated into theRebellion of 1857, which took six months to suppress with heavy loss of life on both sides. The trigger for the Rebellion has been a subject of controversy. The resistance, although short-lived, was triggered by British East India Company attempts to expand its control of India. According to Olson, several reasons may have triggered the Rebellion. For example, Olson concludes that the East India Company's attempt to annex and expand its direct control of India, by arbitrary laws such as Doctrine of Lapse, combined with employment discrimination against Indians, contributed to the 1857 Rebellion.[10]The East India Company officers lived like princes, the company finances were in shambles, and the company's effectiveness in India was examined by the British crown after 1858. As a result, the East India Company lost its powers of government andBritish Indiaformally came underdirect British rule, with an appointedGovernor-General of India. The East India Company was dissolved the following year in 1858. A few years later,Queen Victoriatook the title of Empress of India.[11]India suffered a series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century, leading towidespread faminesin which at least 10 million people died. The East India Company had failed to implement any coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule.[citation needed][dubiousdiscuss]This changed during theRaj, in which commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to have an effect.[12]The slow but momentous reform movement developed gradually into theIndian Independence Movement. During the years ofWorld War I, the hitherto bourgeois "home-rule" movement was transformed into a popular mass movement byMahatma Gandhi, apacifist. Apart from Gandhi, other revolutionaries such asShaheed Bhagat Singh,Chandrashekar AzadandSubhash Chandra Bose, were not against use of violence to oppose the British rule. The independence movement attained its objective with the independence of Pakistan and India on 14 August and 15 August 1947 respectively.

Conservative elements inEnglandconsider the independence of India to be the moment that theBritish Empireceased to be a world power, followingCurzon's dictum that:

While we hold on to India, we are a first-rate power. If we lose India, we will decline to a third-rate power.

[edit]FrenchMain article:French IndiaFollowing the Portuguese, English, and Dutch, theFrenchalso established trading bases in India. Their first establishment was inPondicherryon theCoromandel Coastin southeastern India in 1674. Subsequent French settlements wereChandernagorein Bengal, northeastern India in 1688,YanaminAndhra Pradeshin 1723,Mahein 1725, andKaraikalin 1739. The French were constantly in conflict with the Dutch and later on mainly with the British in India. At the height of French power in the mid-18th century, the French occupied large areas of southern India and the area lying in today's northernAndhra PradeshandOrissa. Between 1744 and 1761, the British and the French repeatedly attacked and conquered each other's forts and towns in southeastern India and in Bengal in the northeast. After some initial French successes, the British decisively defeated the French in Bengal in theBattle of Plasseyin 1757 and in the southeast in 1761 in theBattle of Wandiwash, after which the British East India Company was the supreme military and political power in southern India as well as in Bengal. In the following decades it gradually increased the size of the territories under its control. The enclaves of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mah and Chandernagore were returned to France in 1816 and were integrated with theRepublic of Indiaafter its independence in 1947.

[edit]DanishMain article:Danish IndiaDenmarkwas a minor colonial power to set foot in India. It established trading outposts inTranquebar,Tamil Nadu(1620),Serampore, West Bengal (1755) and theNicobar Islands(1750s). At one time, the main Danish and Swedish East Asia companies together imported moreteato Europe than the British did. Their outposts lost economic and strategic importance, and Tranquebar, the last Danish outpost, was sold to the British in 1845.

[edit]Other external powersTheSpanishwere briefly given territorial rights to India byPope Alexander VIon 25 September 1493 by thebullDudum siquidembefore these rights were removed by theTreaty of Tordesillasless than one year later. TheJapanesebriefly occupied theAndaman and Nicobar IslandsduringWorld War II.